ICL threatens to take legal recourse

ICL made it clear that it would continue to seek recognition from the ICC and threatened to take legal recourse if the vexed issue was not resolved.

Written by Press Trust of India

Read Time: 3 mins

Mumbai/New Delhi:

A day after their talks with BCCI officials failed to make any headway, the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) on Friday made it clear that it would continue to seek recognition from the ICC and threatened to take legal recourse if the vexed issue was not resolved amicably.

Accusing the BCCI of taking a "rigid stand" during the talks, the ICL said it was looking at other available options to achieve their objective of getting recognition from the cricket's world governing body.

"The BCCI does not seem to be in the mood to resolve the issue. We will continue to pursue our pending application (for recognition) with the ICC and all other options available to us, including legal," a spokesperson for ICL told PTI.

Asked whether this means the ICL was thinking of even dragging the ICC to court, the spokesperson said, "as of now we have not taken a decision. We will figure it out."

Talks between officials of the BCCI and ICL on the latter's pending application for recognition to the ICC failed in New Delhi yesterday, leaving a question mark on the possibility of the two bitter rivals reaching a common ground.

The two parties met following directives from the ICC, but failed to make any headway on the contentious issue.

"This morning there was a meeting at Delhi between officials of BCCI and ICL to see if there was any common ground. The talks failed and there are no plans for any further meeting," BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a terse press release.

ICL Chairman Kapil Dev said he was disappointed by the failure of their talks with the BCCI to gain recognition for their Twenty20 league.

"Agar aap poochte hain toh dukh to hai. Hamaare paas 300 bachche hain par saamne wala (BCCI) baat hi karne ko taiyaar nahi hai (If you ask, I'm of course disheartened. We have 300 youngsters but the other party is not even ready to talk)," said Kapil, who was not a part of the meeting with the BCCI.

A top BCCI official refused to comment on the development but said a report would be sent to the ICC on their discussions with ICL officials.

The ICL had applied for recognition to the ICC but a decision on the issue was deferred in the ICC Board meeting on Tuesday.

Instead, the ICC had asked BCCI President Shashank Manohar to meet the representatives of ICL and submit a report on the discussions later on.

"The ICC Board received an application for approval from ICL. The (ICC) Board resolved to adjourn its considerations to allow discussions between BCCI President Shashank Manohar and representatives of the ICL," the ICC had said in a statement on Tuesday after its Board meeting.

Yesterday, ICC's General Manager for Cricket Operations Dave Richardson, a former South Africa Test wicket keeper, told reporters in Mumbai that the request for the dialogue with ICL had been initiated by BCCI chief Manohar.

"The request came from the BCCI (at the ICC Board meeting in Dubai). It's in the BCCI's interest there's one unified family in India", he said.